viii WILD AND CULTIVATED COTTONS 



It would be invidious to mention by name the members of the 

 staff in the various publio institutions already indicated who have 

 all been most considerate and helpful to me, but I must make one 

 exception : Mr. James Britten, of the British Museum, was untiring 

 in his efforts to enable me to see the more interesting specimens in that 

 herbarium, and without whose unique knowledge of the collections, 

 and especially of the penmanship of authors, it would have been 

 impossible for me to fix the ownership of some of the historic 

 examples of Gossypium that it was most necessary I should ascer- 

 tain. 



But, without the liberal assistance of the owners and curators of 

 other great herbaria, my humble attempt at a revision of the genus 

 Gossypium would have been bereft of much of the interest that it 

 may be found to possess. I would specially mention M. Casimir de 

 Candolle, of Geneva, for having forwarded a set of the specimens from 

 his historic herbarium. I am greatly indebted to Mr. B. T. Galloway, 

 Chief, and to Mr. Lyster H. Dewey, Botanist in charge of Fibre 

 Plants of the Bureau of Plant Industry, for having sent for my 

 inspection two very large and extremely beautiful sets of the typical 

 cottons grown in the United States of America. Mr. Dewey has, 

 moreover, favoured me with several instructive letters from which I 

 have drawn some interesting particulars. He has also permitted 

 me to reproduce photographically several of the specimens supplied 

 by him, and these can thus be contrasted as modern types with the 

 older ones reproduced from the Linnean and Sloane herbaria. 



To Professor Isaac Bayley Balfour my grateful acknowledgments 

 are due for having sent me the entire set of Gossypium specimens 

 in the Edinburgh Herbarium a collection rich in Indian cottons, 

 one example of which, from Dr. Buchanan Hamilton's herbarium, 

 I have reproduced. But no less am I indebted to Professor 

 Albert Charles Seward, of Cambridge, for having forwarded to me 

 a most instructive collection in the possession of that University. 

 This contains, among other treasures, the actual specimen collected 

 by Charles Darwin at the Galapagos Islands which has enabled 

 me to rescue one obscure species and to establish I trust beyond 

 doubt the existence of two distinct wild forms as met with in these 

 Islands. 



To Captain A. T. Gage, I.M.S., Superintendent of the Eoyal 

 Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, my thanks are due for having sent, 

 on inspection, a large selection of the specimens in that herbarium ; 



